There are many applications which require a high DC voltage. By way of example, particle accelerators are one application; here charged particles are accelerated to high energies. In addition to their importance in fundamental research, particle accelerators are becoming ever more important in medicine and for many industrial purposes.
Until now, linear accelerators and cyclotrons have been used to produce a particle beam in the MV range, these usually being very complicated and complex instruments.
One type of known particle accelerators are the so-called electrostatic particle accelerators with a DC high-voltage source. Here, the particles to be accelerated are exposed to a static electric field.
By way of example, cascade accelerators (also Cockcroft-Walton accelerators) are known, in which a high DC voltage is generated by multiplying and rectifying an AC voltage by means of a Greinacher circuit, which is connected a number of times in series (cascaded), and hence a strong electric field is provided.